Pete Shepheard remembers … the St Andrews Folk Club, and the early days of the traditional song revival
Image: Imperial Hotel, South Street, St Andrews, from late 1905s postcard “Dig from where you stand” is a precept that … Read more
Review: The Bagpipes, a Cultural History by Richard McLauchlan
Astonishingly affordable at £20 for the hardback book, there’s not excuse not to sneak this into a last-minute Boxing Day … Read more
Review: Jock Duncan: The Man and His Songs
Image: cover, Jock Duncan: The Man and his Songs, compiled and edited by Peter Shepheard (Perth: Rymer Books, 2024) Jock … Read more
Review: The John M Mason Collection
Soundyngs’ workplace recently received an impressively weighty 2 volume hardback collection of fiddle tunes by John M Mason (1940-2011), co-founder … Read more
Scottish Bells
Image: Bells from Holy Trinity Church. A carillon of 15, c1926. Courtesy of the University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums, … Read more
Sounding Stones: Reconstructing Historic Scottish Sacred Soundscapes
‘The Ringing Stone of Tiree’ in J.A. Harvie-Brown and T.E. Buckley A Vertebrate Fauna of Argyll and the Inner Hebrides … Read more
Review: Take It To The Bridge
Image: Tay Road Bridge, approaching Dundee in the slow land (2001), Colin Smith CC BY-SA-2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tay_Road_Bridge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_97596.jpg Dundee: once, jute, jam … Read more
Review: Alexander ‘Battan’ Grant, 1856-1942
Image – the rondello, from Inverness Museums, in Smartify.org Art is long, and life is short, alas; people often need … Read more
The Crannog at Loch Tay: whistles and lyres
Image: whistle and lyre bridge, from EXARC.net 2020(1), Collinson, photographed under CC BY-NC 4.0 licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.en Soundyngs recently wrote about … Read more
Burns’s Family Flute and Other Pastoral Pipes
Image: Burns Family Flute display from Ellisland Farm Museum. Please see Further Reading for their site and how to contribute … Read more
Songs and Fancies: Aberdonian music-making in the 17th Century
Image: Title page from the 3rd edition of Songs and Fancies, 1682, from an ABE Books sales page (other versions … Read more
Scottish Musical Place Names
Image: Piper Street in Keith (author’s own photograph) Summer holidays always throw up some musical curiosities, and this year’s highlight … Read more